After Japanese forces seized Burma (now Myanmar) from British control in 1942, they needed a way to traffic supplies from Thailand into their new country. Shipping cargo by sea was considered too dangerous because of possible attacks by Allied submarines so construction plans for a new railway began. Originally, the proposed route through Burma into Thailand was considered too dangerous due to the hilly jungle terrain; but desperate times call for desperate measures and forced laborers began construction at the Thai end on June 22, 1942.
Nearly 180,000 Asian laborers and 60,000 Allied POWs worked in extreme and dangerous conditions. Of these, 106,000 died as a direct result of the project, including Asian, British, Dutch, Australian, American, and Canadian soldiers.
The most famous portion of the railway, Bridge 277; which was immortalized in Pierre Boulle's book, The Bridge On the River Kwai, was completed in 1943. After several attempts by Allies at destroying the bridge, US bombers finally crushed it in 1945.
Today, tourists can take a ride along the Death Railway on a small train or walk across the bridge's precarious tracks. With enough space between some planks to almost fall into the river below, I've decided it's Not A Good Idea.
View from the bridge
What do you do if you're on a bridge, you're afraid of heights, and a train comes down the tracks?
2 comments:
Well...What DO you do? I'm still waiting for the answer.
Take a picture and then panic a little... and hurry off the tracks.
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